Buffett Fawns on Alwaleed

Alwaleed is particularly fond of his correspondence with Buffett by mail and fax over a span of at least nine years.

Buffett started the exchange, writing Alwaleed after a 12- day stay at New York's Plaza Hotel. In the May 1999 letter, Buffett called the Plaza his "home" when in New York and praised the prince, who then owned a 42 percent stake in the hotel, for the extraordinary service.

"You have restored The Plaza to its former luster -- indeed your managers have enabled it to surpass its previous heights -- and I congratulate you," Buffett wrote in the first of a series of letters that Alwaleed gave to Bloomberg News.

More from Buffett: "In Omaha, I'm known as the 'Alwaleed of America' -- which is quite a compliment," Buffett wrote.

No mention in the lengthy Bloomberg article of Mayor Giuliani returning Prince Alwaleed's $10 million donation after September 11, 2001, because the prince issued a statement blaming the attacks on America's pro-Israel foreign policy, which he said America should reconsider.